Amaryllis put “to bed” for the winter
By balcony
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Amaryllis put “to bed” for the winter
I’ve put my Amaryllis “to bed” for the winter today. I removed all the plants from the kitchen window which is 3m (10ft long) & cut off all the leaves leaving only about 5-6cm (2-3in) on the bulbs. They had been kept completely dry for the past month but few leaves have actually died back on their own so pruning was necessary!
Amaryllis after leaves cut off & binned:
Amaryllis leaves binned:
When I finished I took them to one of our bedrooms & put them all on top of the wardrobe there.
Amaryllis now on top of the wardrobe in the bedroom:
I have done the same for them in previous years &, although the bedroom is not particularly cold or dark, they do well there till I get them out when I notice a bud is just peeking out of the neck of the bulbs. I put them on a windowsill & give them a little water after cleaning off any dead remains of the leaves. Once the scape has buds about to open I move them into our living room & put them on our dining table (which isn’t used very much for dining!) so that they can be enjoyed by anyone who enters the living room.
I then did the same for the bulbs in our bedroom. Only I left them on the windowsill. But the Begonia sempervivens that had spent all the summer sitting on top of the Amaryllis pots were thrown away. I did the same in this window, (put Geranium cuttings in place of the Begonias), after removing the leaves of the Amaryllis.
In the 2nd bedroom there are some pots of Amaryllis that have spent the entire summer on the windowsill.
These I have left where they are for the winter. I haven’t cut the leaves off these plants. So it will be interesting to see if there is any difference in when they flower compared to the others whose leaves have been chopped off. They have been left to dry out just as all the others.
The Amaryllis plants that had been on the shelving on the balcony had already had their leaves chopped off sometime ago & they were the first to go on top of the wardrobe.
Amaryllis with their leaves cut off on the shelving on the balcony:
Amaryllis in the kitchen window seen from the outside on 3rd October 2018:
I have now put lots of Geranium & Pelargonium cuttings on top of the Amaryllis pots in the kitchen window. At least they will get plenty of light & will be safe from frosts. I want to plant them up in the spring into larger pots so I can put them out on the balcony, to flower during the summer, sometime in May 2019.
Kitchen window with Geranium cuttings & now cleared of the Amaryllis pots on 22nd October 2018:
22 Oct, 2018
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Comments
Our Amaryllis plants are in a spare bedroom but have not been pruned. In fact they never are! As I am constantly knocking them around I would welcome some pruning. Must have a word with the OH.
23 Oct, 2018
mine are in the unheated conservatory and don't cut the leaves back. if any die off they will be pulled. They flower in May for me and are a welcome addition to the conservaorty. I don't have as many as you as I know OH would not be a happy bunny.
23 Oct, 2018
Balcony I think your next house shoudld be a greenhouse....
23 Oct, 2018
Thanks for looking at & commenting on my blog!
DD, I'm afraid my wife is not particularly keen on plants - flowers, yes. but she has no idea about growing plants! That she leaves to me!
Eirlys, if they won't die down naturally I have no choice but to chop off their leaves to force them into hibernation. I simply do not have the room in the flat for so many plants during the winter & they take up an enormous amount of light! You don't realize till you do it just how much light they block out. It does them no harm & they flower away again at the time the Daffs are coming out. I'll show you them again next year when they flower again.
Like GoY they "GoY"! LOL!
Not a bad idea, Stera! LOL!
23 Oct, 2018
I've put your blog into my Favourites, Balcony. Thanks.
24 Oct, 2018
Balcony: I will certainly show your post to my OH. The ones upstairs are constantly falling over and I get so up tight about the mess. I managed to get rid of the orchids!!
24 Oct, 2018
Thanks, Linda! I hope it serves you sometime in the future. I've been doing this for several years now & it hasn't stopped them from flowering again the following year! I have a "control" (like the scientists!) as there are some in the 2nd bedroom that I've done nothing to except withhold all water since the middle of September.
Just yesterday I removed the leaves that were yellow or brown but that is all. They haven't moved from that windowsill in at least a year, except for a couple of weeks when the flower came out & then they went straight back there again & have remained there ever since.
Eirlys, commercially they cut the foliage off before sending the bulbs to the shops & look how they bloom later! I once saw a documentary & saw how they cut off the leaves mercilessly which caused me quite a bit of alarm at the time! But if they have been well looked after during their growing season then it does them no harm.
25 Oct, 2018
Oh My!!, Balcony you do have rather a lot again, am I right in thinking you no longer have your allotment to take them to during the summertime, if they all bloom at the same time you'll be needing another table, lol....
29 Oct, 2018
Lincslass, you are right in saying I no longer have an allotment, I gave it up several years ago.
Last year I had to throw away nearly 50% of my bulbs because they were infected by a disease that causes the bulbs to have a reddish discharge & makes the leaves grow twisted & with more or less red in the leaves. the flower stems (scapes) are often affected as well & become distorted.
It can be cured but it is lengthy & is only worth it if you have some of the rarer, more costly bulbs. Mine were hybrids I created myself &, although they looked very nice, certainly couldn't be catalogued as being rare or costly!
They never all flower at the same time because I stagger them. As I make them hibernate, (I don't have the room to keep them all in the flat over winter with leaves), I wake them up a few at a time therefore they also flower over a period of time & not all at once.
This year I put most of them outside on the balcony for the summer but some spent the summer on the windowsills of the kitchen & two bedrooms.
31 Oct, 2018
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You have been busy, I presume your wife loves plants as much as you do!!
23 Oct, 2018